A bitter cold snap is going to smack the Bay Area this week with high winds and below-freezing temperatures in some areas, forecasters said Monday.

The National Weather Service issued a high-wind advisory starting noon Tuesday as an inland arctic air mass moves in from the north, said Bob Benjamin, a weather service forecaster.

The wind and chilly weather will extend through Wednesday and linger into New Year’s Day.

“The revelers out on Wednesday better bundle up,” Benjamin said. “People with sensitive pets or plants also need to take the weather into account.”

In San Francisco, lows will be in the mid-40s on Tuesday and may dip into the high 30s on New Year’s Eve and into the New Year. In the East Bay and South Bay, the mercury will fall into the upper 20s by Thursday, according to the weather service.

“Thursday morning appears to be the coldest day,” Benjamin said. “If it wasn’t crossing over into the next calendar year, it would be the coldest day of the year.”

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Winds will whip up around 15 to 25 mph in San Francisco, with some gusts reaching 45 mph. In elevations above 1,000 feet around the Bay Area, forcasters said, winds will be a steady 30 mph with gusts around 55 mph.

The region may also see downed trees and power outages, as winds put strain on trees with root structures compromised by weeks of wet weather, Benjamin said.

While the weather will be cold and windy, it will also be dry. The weather system won’t pick up much moisture as it descends over land from the northeast. Forecasters estimate about a 20 percent chance of showers Tuesday.

“If (showers) do occur Tuesday, they will quite brief and light,” Benjamin said. “There’s a highly unlikely chance that anyone will encounter them.”

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